Born in Toronto in 1952, I grew up in the suburbs (North York) and devoted myself to the typical studies of a future artist and intellectual: sports, rock and roll, Star Trek (yes the old one with the paper maché rocks). Lacking the coordination for a career in sports (or rock and roll for that matter), I became a musician of eclectic tastes (the tastes of my current friends) moving quickly away from my early, non-starting rock and roll career (and two-toned, solid body electric guitar) through folk (with a cheap steel-strung acoustic), jazz (a semi-solid electric bass) finally to classical guitar in my mid teens. Oh yes, I also studied piano (somewhat sporadically and with a certain lack of intensity which I and my students continue to regret) and bass (my high-school instrument) and sang in a number of pretty good choirs.
I suppose one could blame my decision to become a composer on the busybody music teacher who suggested I give it a shot. I thought my piece was pretty good -- it wasn't -- and more important, found it to be more fun than doing algebra or even playing basketball! I enrolled in the Mus.Bac Program at the University of Toronto with every intention of becoming a school teacher. Even the decision to major in Theory and Composition was not motivated by a desire to be the next Hildegarde -- after all, no one had heard of Hildegarde back then -- but by the idea that I would learn MORE than I would in an education degree and therefore, be a better teacher.
Nothing turns out the way we plan, does it. I went on to study with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau and later in Paris and to graduate study at the University of Michigan with Pulitzer-Prize winning composers Leslie Bassett and William Bolcom among others. I got almost straight A's (some meanie gave me a B in conducting), won a couple of CAPAC (now SOCAN) prizes and confidently expected the world to fall at my feet (see the beginning of this paragraph)!
Six years of limited-term teaching positions later, I decided to marry my current sweetie Lori Burns (now Dr. Lori Burns of the University of Ottawa) and hike off to Harvard to be a graduate student spouse. It was fun (sometimes). I wrote a lot of good music there, saw a lot of terrific concerts and a lot of concerts of pretty dry 12-tone music, had some superb performances of my own music, did a lot of teaching at slave wages and ate tons of ice cream.
In Boston, I was considered a "touchy-feely" composer just a couple of IQ points east of John Tesh.
Five years later, Lori graduated and got a pretty good job at The Ohio State University. I hung out, wrote some more music , taught a bit and ended up President of the Central Ohio Composers Alliance (yes it spells COCA).
In Columbus, I was considered a "pointy-headed intellectual" just a few IQ points west of Milton Babbitt."
I finally followed Lori to the University of Ottawa where the universe appears to be unfolding as it should.